Cooling weather sends spiders into Kamloops and Okanagan homes
Hairy spiders shaped like pieces of popcorn are crawling into homes and doorways in Kamloops and the Okanagan, and while they are startling looking with giant abdomens and horns on their backs, the spiders are harmless.
Also known by the common names cat-faced spider and jewel spider among others, popcorn spiders are busy in the fall, weaving large webs and preparing to lay egg sacs before dying.
“She’s a beauty, she was really busy rebuilding her web this morning,” said Kamloops resident Jamie Pearce about a popcorn spider he has in his house.
“I love it when she has a little nap in the top corner.”
Pearce said he has been watching the spider, he calls Halle since she was tiny and appeared in his shoe rack a couple of months ago.
“I didn’t have a clue what kind she was, she disappeared for two days, then was in the top corner of my kitchen and has been there since,” he said.
Lake Country’s Pets and Exotics owner Stuart Brown said while the popcorn spider has several common names the only true one is the scientific name araneus gemmoides, and its a spider that belongs to a large family of spiders called garden orb weavers.
The spiders can be found in the Okanagan and Kamloops in the spring and summer but are most noticeable in the fall when they are at their maximum size and females are moving into nooks and crannies to lay egg sacs.
“The females are in survival mode, you’ll see them making webs and coming into human places to find somewhere safe to lay eggs,” Brown said. “I don’t want to trigger anyone’s arachnophobia but you’re always surrounded by spiders, they’re everywhere all the time.”
Garden orb weaver spiders only live for a year and they don’t hibernate. The female dies after laying the sac around the time of first frost.
“It takes a ton of effort to grow quickly and lay 10,000 eggs,” Brown said. “They unload most of their body weight in eggs, it’s extremely stressful on their body and it shuts them down.”
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The spider in E.B. White’s classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web was a garden orb weaver.
“Garden orb weavers make a very classic, perfectly circular web and they do it fast,” Brown said. “Within 24 hours they weave a huge web.”
The egg sacs hatch in the spring and the spiderlings start the cycle all over. Much like in Charlotte’s Web, the spiderlings send out silk strands that get caught in the breeze and parachute to where they will make a home.
“The novel was pretty accurate, except for the talking pig part,” Brown said.
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Garden orb weavers come in a wide array of colours and can be identified by their large round webs and chunky body shape.
“These spiders are stalky with short, spiky legs and extremely large abdomens at this time of the year,” Brown said. “They have little horns on their backs for display, to make themselves look scary to predators.”
The spiders aren’t harmful to humans, do not attack out of defence and are found throughout mid to southern Canada and the United States.
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